We’re a couple of weeks into the new year and I’m already hearing from people that a bit of malaise has set in. The runs are happening, but the eager enthusiasm of the first two weeks has passed. A look outside at a cold rain-shower has them saying, “I guess I could take a day off.” This is the time to spice up those workouts to keep yourself motivated. So today I presented five tips to spice up your runs!

Spicy Tip 1 — Sprint between the traffic lights — So let’s say that your live in an urban center with lots of traffic lights and short blocks. This can be a drag, because you end up running from light to light and then waiting. Well, here’s a fun way to spice up these urban runs: turn your urban run into an interval workout by running hard between the lights and using the light as a recovery period. My friend Coach Dean once told me he was in the best shape of his life when he lived in urban areas and did this type of workout. Start out by warming up and then when you’re ready push yourself hard up to a traffic light, stop at the light and wait, then go again when the light changes to green. Here’s a tip: you do need recovery between the hard intervals, so if you happen to catch the lights at a green light, wait a cycle to give yourself a breather.

Spicy Tip 2 — Turn your workout into a game — You may or may not have heard the funny term “fartlek”, which is a term for a type of mixed speed running workout. Whatever you call it, turning a workout into a game of tag or follow-the-leader can be a lot of fun. Here’s how it works. Find yourself a couple of people and take turns leading. The leader sets the pace and/or tries to outrun the other people in the group. When someone is caught, take a breather of 30 seconds to one minute and then the person that caught that last person gets a chance to take off. Here’s a tip: you need to be somewhat closely matched to play this game or someone will just take-off and no one will be able to catch them. You can overcome this by setting a limit — if they haven’t been caught in 30 seconds then they need to come back and give someone else a turn.

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A friend of mine is recovering from a stress fracture in her heel. In her case, the stress fracture was caused by training too much in minimalist shoes too quickly. I shared some thoughts about stress fractures and methods of recovery with her that I thought you might find helpful as well. The “glass and hammer” analogy below is a good one to keep in mind when thinking about stress fractures. It is also important to realize that stress fractures are actually little cracks in the bone. If you continue to beat on them, they can turn into actual breaks in the bone (fractures). Just like “breaking your leg” when you were a kid, once you’ve broken a bone in this manner, you’ll be in cast and may suffer permanent damage. So if you have inkling of a stress fracture developing, please take care to have it checked out.

Here’s what I had to say about stress fractures:

First off, let’s think about stress fractures themselves. Stress fractures are small cracks (fractures) that develop in bones due to force (or stress) that is being placed on a particular bone. One of the most important things in dealing with stress fractures is that we need to figure out the root cause of the stress fracture in order to make sure that it doesn’t come back again when you resume training. This may seem obvious, but too often people take the advice to “rest and recover” for 4-6 weeks or more and then resume training without an idea of what caused the injury in the first place. If the causation isn’t addressed, the problem is going to come back — and likely come back very quickly.

The second thing to keep in mind is that the stress fracture can be either a result of the stress being placed on the bone or the strength of the bone itself — or a combination of both. That’s where the “glass and hammer” analogy comes into play. Think about it this way: If you were to take a hammer and tap it on a piece of glass repeatedly, eventually the glass would crack. The cracks in this analogy are the stress fractures. What’s happening here is that the tapping cracks the glass (the bone), but this can be due to two different reasons. Was it a matter of 1) how hard you were hitting the glass or 2) how thick or thin the glass was in the first place. Both of these can be the culprit.

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I’m not Facebook friends with all of the athletes that figured prominently in this past weekend’s 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials, but if I were I’m sure each of them would have posted something on their wall about their performances. I would have then perhaps taken a moment to comment on their performances. Not just a “good job” but a few of the thoughts that crossed my mind as I watched the race. So today, here are my comments to some of the standouts at the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials.

Dear Ryan — Ryan, oh Ryan. We love you brother. You are our fastest marathon runner. In fact, you were minutes faster than any American runner last year and you’re sitting on something like a four minute gap over everyone else in between your PR and theirs. We get it that you don’t like to “run in back”, but you seem to keep doing the same thing over again. You get out in front and lead the race from the start and then don’t quite have it at the end. Here’s all I’m saying: when you’re sitting on like a four minute differential in your PR over everyone else in the race, maybe let the other guys lead and save it for the last two miles. Then bust out that great speed and take it home. Granted, things will be different at the Olympics where there will be much faster people in the field. But you are a great talent and still young. You can race to make the difference between first and second.

Dear Shalane – Shalane, the people of Portland are really proud of you. You were facing the probably the toughest competition ever in a US Olympic Trials and you were far from the most experienced runner in the bunch. A lot of people were thinking that experience would trump the young speed in the field. I wasn’t one of those people. I knew it was going to come down to the new faces. I admit that I had picked Desi to take the win, but I would have put money on you to win, place or show. You looked great out there. Your form is picture perfect. With more experience at the marathon distance you are going to be unstoppable. Nice work!

Dear Meb– Meb, I met your dad once. Ever since, I’ve been a huge fan. You were such an inspirational American story before this win, but this just really tops it. Now you can add “comeback” to the resume. You looked so strong out there in the last miles. When other people were falling apart, you had it. You looked great on the hills in New York the last couple of outings as well. Despite Ryan’s speed, you really are the strongest American marathon runner right now. What you have is the combination of strength and strategic thinking that it takes to win. You’ve shown that you can perform on tough, hilly courses like New York and Athens with international competition. The question is how will you do in London? Thrilling I’m sure!

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Ryan Hall led much of the US Olympic Marathon Trials today in Houston, but it was Athens silver medalist Meb Keflezighi that took the win and the first position on the US Olympic Team. Keflezighi finished the close race in an unofficial time of 2:09:08, which would be a new personal best for him.

The other two members of the Men’s US Olympic Marathon team headed for London would be Ryan Hall who finished in 2:09:13 and Abdi Abdirahman in 2:09:47. This will be one of the strongest US Olmypic Marathon teams in a long time, based on the amount of Olypmic experience represented by Keflezighi, Hall and Abdirhman collectively. Portland’s Dathan Ritzenhein came in fourth in a personal best 2:09:55. The top four finishers came in within one minute of each other.

In the women’s trials, Shalane Flanagan takes it in 2:25:38, which will be a new personal best for her. Desiree Davila is second in 2:25:55 and Kara Goucher finishes third in 2:26:06. Amy Hastings is fourth in 2:27:17. The previous Olympic Trials record was Colleen De Reuck’s 2:28:25 finish from the 2004 Trials, so all four of the first women were faster than the old Trials record.

The race will be televised later today on NBC stations nationwide. Check your local listing for the exact time.

To read more about the race, click here to go to our main web-site.

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So we’re in week number two of the New Year and I continue to hear people talking about their New Year’s resolutions. I was talking with one young woman at the track today who was complaining about not having any energy this week. What had she changed in her diet I asked? She was trying to lose a few pounds, so she had started skipping breakfast. Probably the cause of her lack of energy. Skipping meals isn’t ever a good idea, especially when there are so many places where calories hide that we can cut without even really missing them.

So I thought I would give a couple of pieces of advice on easy places to cut calories to support your New Year’s weight loss resolutions. We all need to keep in mind that running itself only burns about 115 calories per mile, so running say 4 miles only burns away about 450 calories — not enough to give you a license to eat anything you want. Here are my top five calorie killers for runners looking to shave off some weight in the new year:

Calories lurk in places like the coffee drink

Calorie Killer Number 1 – Kill the coffee drinks — Sorry folks, but skipping breakfast and then drinking a Venti Carmel Macchiato is not going to cut it. People seem to think that the calories in those coffee drinks don’t count for much. Unfortunately, they do. Many of the ingredients in coffee drinks are loaded with sugar or fat. To give you an example, a yummy Grande Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha with whipped cream (but only 2% milk) comes in at 500 calories. That’s more than your four mile run would burn away. You can check out the calories content of all of your favorite Starbucks drinks can be found by clicking here. But don’t get me wrong, there are good choices on the menu at your local coffee shop. Regular coffee has almost no calories and opting for skim milk dramatically cuts the calories on most drinks. Opt for drinks with sugar free flavorings if you must have them or even better, drink your coffee black.

Calorie Killer Number 2 — Lose the beer and wine — They say that moderation is a virtue, but some of us seem to drink beer and wine with a sort of nutritional blind-spot. Runners World even had an article in the January 2012 issue talking about how runners love to drink beer socially after their runs. But, as with coffee drinks, there are a lot of calories lurking in them thar beverages. Most “normal” beers (meaning not “light” beers) come in around 150-200 calories per twelve ounce bottle. My favorite beers seem to have the most calories, including Blue Moon that comes in at 171 calories with 13.7 grams of Carbohydrate. You can see a list of calories in many domestic beers by clicking here. As with the coffee drinks, opting for light beers will cut calories. But drinking in moderation will help a great deal as well.

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Today I’m going to try something new. In the spirit of Facebook and “liking” things, I’m going to tell you what I liked — and disliked — about this weekend’s Walt Disney World Marathon. I’ve always wished there was a “dislike” button on Facebook, so I’ll just say thumbs up and thumbs down on some things that you might be wondering about this very large race.

Coach Joe after the 2012 WDW Half-marathon

First, a little background. This is actually the third race that I’ve done at Disney World. In 2010, I was one of the unlucky souls that was there for the Walt Disney World Marathon when temperatures were well below freezing. Yikes, that was cold. I’ve also supported the Disney Princess Half-marathon in Walt Disney World. This year I decided to run in the Walt Disney World Half-marathon, because it provides a good early season (or Winter) racing opportunity and really this course doesn’t disappoint on a lot of levels. But, as promised, my thumbs and thumbs down list for the Walt Disney World Marathon!

Course Terrain — THUMBS UP — this is one really, really flat course. There are a couple of bridges and fly-over ramps that you cross, but other than that there is very little that isn’t totally flat. There is one short hill where the course crosses under a water-way, but otherwise this baby should provide a really quick course.

Start Time — THUMBS DOWN — So, I get it. They want to open the parks early, but the fact that the bus transportation starts at 3:00AM says a lot. Riddle me this: if the full marathon has to start at 5:30AM to get the parks open on Sunday, why does the half-marathon (held on Saturday) also have to have a 5:30AM start? Logic would be suggest that the half could start say an hour and a half later, which would be a lot LOT better experience for the runners.

Course Scenery — THUMBS UP, SORT OF — I am very enthusiastic about the scenery of the course, but it was so dark that it was hard to see a lot of it. This may be a corner case for the faster runners, because when I supported the full marathon in 2010, there was plenty of sunlight for most people. The course is really neat in that it goes right through the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. The full marathon course also goes through Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and along the Boardwalk. There are few courses that can provide those kinds of sights. In addition, there is music, people jumping on trampolines, and the famous Disney Characters. Your ability to view all of this might be based somewhat on how fast you’re going.

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The evidence of the New Year is everywhere around us. I was at the gym at noon, a mistake on most days of the year, but a disaster today. The ten treadmills were all full with people lurking to find an open slot. The crowds are hitting the gym, which I applaud, but as I watched what was going on, I can sum up: slow, plodding miles, passing by the minutes on the treadmill. Not only is the slow roller on the treadmill ineffective, but it is just plain boring. Today, I present two simple workouts to ramp up the caloric burn, make your treadmill time count, and get you sweaty enough to soak your best friend with a post-workout hug.

Workout #1 – Progressive Pace — In this first workout, you’ll progressively increase the pace that you are running or walking throughout the workout. Increasing the pace slowly provides two things: a good warm-up and increasing effort levels as the workout goes forward. This workout can be done quickly in a pinch by shortening the intervals or can be extended to become a very difficult up-tempo style run. In the workout below, I’ll suggest speeds as examples, but you’ll need to adjust the speed based on your capabilities. The trick is to make sure that you don’t start out too fast or you will not be able to continue to increase the pace over the course of the workout.

Here’s what you’ll do:
1. Start out walking a brisk pace for 4 minutes to warm-up (e.g. 4.0 MPH)
2. Increase the pace to a warm-up jog pace for 6 minutes (e.g. 6.0 MPH)
{this is a 10 minute walk and jog warm-up}

3. Increase the pace to your normal running pace for 5 minutes (e.g. 7.0 MPH)
{you can increase the time of this for up to a few miles to get fully warm-up}

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It’s day three of the new year and people are already struggling to keep their New Year’s Resolutions all around you. If you’ve made some lofty resolutions, you might even already be in that boat. The gyms will be flush with new recruits for the new month as people try to “get in shape” and, unfortunately, there won’t be nearly as many people at those gyms by the time the Super Bowl rolls around. But for you, runners, I’ve come up with five New Year’s Resolutions that you can set for yourself and stick with all year long. And the great thing is that if you do these little things, they will lead you to bigger things as the year goes by.

Resolution #1 — Do one fast/quality/speed workout per week – So many runners out there “just run”. Adding in just a little speed work yields major improvements in running speed and efficiency over time. Yet, most runners don’t quite know where to start. So here’s my first resolution: resolve to get in just ONE faster workout every week. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 5K race, a short set of intervals, or a game of speed play with runner friends. Just add in one of these workouts. You’ll notice the difference and you’ll start wanting to do more. After a few months, you may want to add more speed workouts or even get on a structured training plan, but this is a great way to start.

Resolution #2 — Do 20 pushs and 20 sit-ups at the end of every run– Yes, start with 20. Drop down to the ground and give yourself 20 then roll over and crunch that belly 20 times. These two exercises that anyone can do built upper body and core strength, more so than running will on its own. As with these other resolutions, if you start with 20, by the end of the year you may be doing 3 sets of 20 and you’ll see a marked chaned in the shape of your shoulders and chest.

Resolution #3 — Drink one liter of clear water every day– Go get yourself a one liter bottle. Fill it up in the morning and drink it. Too many runners neglect their water intake and get by with the water in their food or other beverages. But few things are better for you than drinking some plain, clear, water every day. Drinking water promotes weight loss and keeps tissues healthy. Most people need to drink at least two to three liters of water a day, but let’s start with one and work from there.

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